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Mental Illness in America

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Does America Have A Mental Health Problem?

Mental Illness affects us all. Here's How:

Mental illness is an important public health problem in the United States. A new CDC report describes the extent of mental illness among U.S. adults and recommends increased efforts to monitor mental illness and anxiety disorders.

What is mental illness?

The term mental illness refers collectively to all mental disorders. Effects of the illness include sustained abnormal alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with distress and impaired functioning. The effects of mental illnesses include disruptions of daily function; incapacitating personal, social, and occupational impairment; and premature death. The most common mental illnesses in adults are anxiety and mood disorders.

How Widespread is Mental Illness?

According to the World Health Organization, mental illness results in more disability in developed countries than any other group of illnesses, including cancer and heart disease. Other published studies report that about 25% of all U.S. adults have a mental illness and that nearly 50% of U.S. adults will develop at least one mental illness during their lifetime.

Where in the United States is the level of mental illness highest?

Depression estimates generally are highest in the Southeastern states (e.g., 13.7% in Mississippi and West Virginia vs. 4.3% in North Dakota).